1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to target transport apparatuses that transport a target and liquid ejecting apparatuses provided with such target transport apparatuses.
2. Related Art
Thus far, ink jet printers that form images by ejecting a liquid from a liquid ejecting head onto a target have been known as one type of liquid ejecting apparatus. For example, with the printer disclosed in JP-A-2005-271293, a transport roller pair that imparts a transport force on paper (a target) while pinching that paper is provided in a transport path of the paper. This transport roller pair is configured of a transport driving roller and a transport slave roller, and by configuring the transport slave roller of a plurality of segmented roller members disposed at intervals in the width direction of the paper, the paper that is fed out from the transport roller pair is suppressed from meandering in the width direction.
In addition, in recent years, printers provided with sensors for monitoring amounts by which a target is transported by such a transport roller pair are being proposed. For example, in the printer disclosed in JP-A-2007-217176, an image capturing device that continuously captures an image of the surface of recording paper (a target) is provided as such a sensor. According to this printer, an amount by which the recording paper, on which a transport force is imparted by being pinched between a transport driving roller and a transport slave roller, is moved is detected based on the amount of movement of a specific image pattern that follows the relief of the surface of the recording paper contained in an image obtained from the image capturing device.
Incidentally, according to the printer disclosed in JP-A-2007-217176, the transport slave roller is configured as a plurality of segmented roller members disposed at intervals in the width direction of the recording paper in order to suppress the recording paper from meandering in the width direction. In this case, because the areas of the recording paper corresponding to the spaces between adjacent segmented roller members in the width direction are not pinched between the transport driving roller and the transport slave roller, if the recording paper absorbs ink (a liquid) ejected from a recording head (a liquid ejecting head) and wets and swells as a result, the recording paper will deform locally. The distance between the image capturing device and the recording paper will thus change; as a result, the image capturing device cannot clearly capture the relief on the surface of the recording paper, leading to a risk that the amount by which the recording paper is transported cannot be accurately detected.